A&P says goodbye to CEO and reports decreased sales

MONTVALE, N.J. The company has commenced a search for a successor and in the interim, Christian Haub, executive chairman of the board, will reassume the CEO responsibilities, a position he previously held from 1998 until 2005.

The company also announced fiscal 2009 second quarter and year to date results for the 12 and 28 weeks ended Sept. 12. Sales for second quarter were $2.1 billion versus $2.2 billion last year. Comparable store sales decreased 3.8%. Sales for the 28 weeks year to date were $4.9 billion versus $5.1 billion in 2008. Comparable store sales decreased 3.6%.

Christian Haub, executive chairman of the board, said, “The current challenging economy continues to impact our business...We have been making the difficult choices for the short term, such as improving our retail pricing, and will continue to work on lowering our expenses, enhancing our customer service and improve our overall brand image of this key format. Securing over $400 million in new funds was clearly done at the right time to ensure that we have the resources to address future debt maturities and to invest in our optimization strategies...We believe that once the economy improves these strategies will position us well to realize the tremendous strategic value of the company and to capitalize on our leadership position in the Northeast.”